There's shameless, and then there are progressive Democrats in positions of power.
Not even remotely in the same league, and this truism has played out yet again in broad daylight for all the world to see.
New York City Mayor Zohran 'Commie' Mamdani has been claiming he 'inherited' a $12 B budget deficit from his predecessor, debonair man about town, former mayor Eric Adams - who, for the record, told Mamdani to pound sand over the claims. For a guy who had promised the moon and free bus rides to his tangled coalition of rainbows, Mamdani was between a rock and a hard spot, finding ways to pay for the goodie outlay they were all expecting once they got him elected.
Now the mayor is claiming he's 'closed the budget gap,' but in actuality what he did was raise taxes, get handouts from the state, and wing some fiscal razzle-dazzle pension-payment reshuffling of the kind currently sinking Chicago beneath the briny waves of fiscal insolvency.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday unveiled a $124.7 billion budget that he said would close a projected $12 billion deficit over the next two years without drawing from the city’s rainy day reserves, raising property taxes, or making major cuts to social services.
But the plan relies heavily on state aid and delayed pension payments, raising questions about whether the city has solved its fiscal problems or merely postponed them. TIME has reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment.
The democratic socialist mayor's first budget arrives as city spending continues to outpace revenue growth, testing his ability to reconcile his campaign promises with fiscal reality while maintaining support from both Albany and the progressive voters who elected him.
Much of the budget gap was closed with the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who provided $7.6 billion in state aid to the city. Mamdani also said the administration identified additional savings, including by reducing unnecessary overtime costs projected to save an additional $1.77 billion.
What Mamdani did not address was the spending problem the city has and refuses to curb - more going out all the time than what is coming in.
This, as progressives never seem to notice, is an issue.
Now, the mayor is relatively new to the job, all of seven months or so in office, and this didn't happen when he took the oath on a Koran. It's been festering for ages and enabled by the New York City Council, which every election seems to skew a little more radically leftist.
Money is so tight it doesn't exist. For example, EMS workers have been without a contract for four years. The New York Times profiled a young EMS worker, a mother with young children, who was planning on leaving the EMS service.
The city is more worried about the domino effect when bumping pay for one service triggers demands for raises for everyone.
...Ms. Soto, 29, said she earns a little more than $56,000 a year with “tons and tons” of overtime and takes home about $1,500 every two weeks — hardly enough to support her family of three. And the more she works, the more she owes the babysitter who looks after her two toddlers — sometimes from 6:30 in the morning until 11 at night. She occasionally cleans homes for extra money on her days off.
“It shouldn’t be like that,” said Ms. Soto, who lives in affordable housing on Staten Island for $932 a month. “You shouldn’t have to be overworking yourself at one job — and then, even doing overtime, you have to go and still do something else to make money.”
Her poor pay, burnout and impending departure are common among New York City’s 3,500 emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Their plight represents a problem for their boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of the most conspicuously pro-worker leaders in the city’s recent history, who has pledged to make New York more affordable while delivering the best public services in the country.
...The city is currently negotiating a new contract with the unions representing E.M.S. workers, said Kenneth Londono, a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations. They have not had a contract in four years, and a new one most likely would include retroactive pay raises.
But in New York City, if one union gets a raise, it can cause a domino effect where other union leaders demand higher pay for their own members. The city may not be able to afford to give its hundreds of thousands of employees raises at the same time.
“I’ve heard this line from the city: ‘Well, if we give it to you, other people, other unions are going to say, what about me?’” said Vincent Variale, who represents about 600 E.M.S. captains and sergeants.
Money the city doesn't have, remember?
Even for the most critical of employees in one of the most critical city services.
What they do have money for is raises for the city council.
Or so the city council seems to think, since they awarded themselves the 18 percent pay hike they'd spent all last year trying to jam through, backdated to their very first day in office this year.
Shameless NYC Council members give themselves a big fat 18% pay hike - on first day on the job https://t.co/8GAdvzWLBT pic.twitter.com/RjXUYabZy2
— New York Post (@nypost) July 16, 2026
Isn't this something? I mean, it really is.
City Council members overwhelmingly voted Thursday to give themselves an 18% raise — a shamelessly self-serving move that comes after months of thwarted attempts to pass a fat pay hike.
A veto-proof 42-6 vote approved the measure to inflate council salaries to $175,500, as well as hike Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pay to $305,800 a year, backdated to January — the start of new terms in office and the first day on the job for some lawmakers.
Mamdani could virtue signal that he wouldn't accept it. After all, he'll always have his parents' money if he and the delightful Hamas-loving psychopath he married run a little short before payday.
Easy for him to reject a pay increase. His mommy and daddy are millionaires. This act is nothing but Mamdani cosplaying a good hearted man of the people. 🤮
— Laura Lee Lindsey (@Mayhawwoman) July 17, 2026
The city council speaker, Julie Menin, turned her raise down, too, although it doesn't hurt that she's a millionaire in her own right, while pointing out those FDNY employees, EMS workers, and other city employees that Mamdani's administration hasn't helped.
...The speaker said before the vote that lawmakers wanted to give middle-income city workers inflation-related raises, but blamed Mamdani for them seemingly going nowhere.
“Let me just be clear: we pushed for the wages for the EMS workers. We pushed for the FDNY. We pushed really hard for that,” she said. “The administration did not want to do either.”
The lonely six nay votes were either all Republicans or a couple of conservative Democrats. One of those is Phil Wong, who represents the Queens.
Mr. Wong spoke for his borough constituents in an effort to try to shame his fellow council members from awarding themselves the handsome raise.
"In my district, there are so, so many constituents that are living paycheck to paycheck," Wong said. "With that in mind ... I cannot consciously vote onto a bill to increase the salaries for myself."
🚨WATCH: New York City Councilmember Phil Wong REFUSES to vote for a measure that gives an 18% pay increase to the entire council.
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) July 17, 2026
Despite Wong's objection, the measure went on to pass by a veto-proof 42-6 vote. pic.twitter.com/MEtChvThgi
But in progressive minds, money grows on trees, and there is never any shame in making sure you get yours first.
...The raises are expected to cost the city $2.6 million this year and $17 million next year, according to the Council’s analysis.
The Council’s decision to raise its own pay comes as Mamdani faces the prospect of negotiating dozens of soon-to-expire labor contracts with New York’s roughly 300,000 employees — and as the city faces multibillion-dollar deficits over the next four years.
Private-sector workers in New York have experienced slow growth in their household incomes compared to inflation, according to state comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Between 2019-2024, inflation rose about 23%, while real median household income decreased by 2.4% in Manhattan, 3.5% on Staten Island and 1.3% in the Bronx. Only Queens and Brooklyn recorded increases in real median household incomes, with gains of 1.9% and 8.3%, respectively.
While the gettin's good.
Beege ADDS: Someone shook the money tree again, and, AGAIN, none of it fell on a fire department.
Source: https://t.co/whVKTCUdhl
— Democrats Deliver (@DemzDeliver) July 15, 2026
I swear. Just the strangest thing, no?
